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Oct 26, 2019

What’S Next For Spectrum Sharing? IEEE Spectrum

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

“You’ve graduated from the school of spectral hard knocks,” Paul Tilghman, a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program manager, told the teams competing in the agency’s Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) finale on 23 October. The three-year competition had just concluded, and the top three teams were being called on stage as a song that sounded vaguely like “Pomp and Circumstance” played overhead.

“Hard knocks” wasn’t an exaggeration—the 10 teams that made it to the finale, as well as others who were eliminated in earlier rounds of the competition—had been tasked with proving something that hadn’t been demonstrated before. Their challenge was to see if AI-managed radio systems could work together to share wireless spectrum more effectively than static, pre-allocated bands. They had spent years battling it out in match-ups in a specially-built RF emulator DARPA built for the competition, Colosseum.

Continue reading “What’S Next For Spectrum Sharing? IEEE Spectrum” »

Oct 26, 2019

Please, God, bring back those good old pagans

Posted by in category: futurism

It’s wrong to call a post-modern, post-Christian society pagan.

Oct 26, 2019

There are potentially millions of tons of water ice on the Moon!

Posted by in categories: space, sustainability

In 2022, we’ll send a rover to hunt for water at the lunar south pole. Learn more about our VIPER mission and how its findings will bring us closer to establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon: https://go.nasa.gov/2WcDtCQ

Oct 26, 2019

Japan’s SoftBank shaken

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

TOKYO — Japanese technology giant SoftBank has committed billions of dollars to bailing out office-space sharing startup WeWork in a daring vote of confidence from its intrepid founder Masayoshi Son.

WeWork’s woes are substantial enough that some analysts say they could derail the investment ambitions of SoftBank’s mammoth Vision Fund.

But, as one of the most innovative companies in conservative Japan Inc., SoftBank is no stranger to risk-taking. SoftBank oversees an expanding conglomerate of businesses spanning telecommunications, energy and humanoid robots:

Oct 26, 2019

Toyota is working on innovating a solar-powered electric car that can ‘run forever’ and never needs charging

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Coupled with a high enough battery capacity to keep a vehicle running during darker hours, solar-powered cars have the potential to completely outdo other new types of tech that are currently in the pipeline — from hybrid vehicles to hydrogen-powered cars.


  • Toyota, Sharp, and NEDO have teamed up to manufacture a unique car that could “run forever”, according to Bloomberg.
  • There have been promising advances in developing thin enough solar panels for curved surfaces, as well as in tech for charging vehicles while they’re in motion.
  • The solar cells the companies are working on attaching to the car are only 0.03 mm thick, so they can be attached to curved areas on cars like the roof, the hood, or the hatchback.
  • By pairing more efficient solar cells with high-capacity batteries to keep vehicles running at night, solar cars have the potential to outperform hybrid vehicles and hydrogen-powered cars.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A solar-powered electric car that runs without needing charging may sound impossible, but Toyota, Sharp, and NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan) have joined forces to hopefully make it a reality.

By pairing together the best solar panels on the market with the most efficient batteries available — not to mention years worth of experience with car-manufacturing — the companies are hoping, theoretically, to produce a vehicle that might run forever.

Oct 25, 2019

Space – the next frontier – requires innovation in nuclear fuel design and testing

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, space travel

To go where no man has gone before (and to get back) will require quite a bit of oomph. All that energy must come from somewhere. Traditional chemical rocket fuels could work for some missions, but nuclear-based propulsion systems have several advantages.

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) rockets use a nuclear reaction to heat liquid hydrogen. When the hydrogen is heated, it expands and is forced through a nozzle to produce thrust. This is similar to how air can stream out of the stem of a balloon and cause it to fly across the room. With rockets, this happens with much greater speed and force.

These hydrogen propelled rockets are designed for space exploration, not for use on Earth, and subsequently would not be turned on (i.e. brought critical) until after they left Earth. Although the specific type of fuel for these applications has not been formally selected, the fuel envisioned for use in an NTP environment is uranium fuel.

Oct 25, 2019

Physicists simulate critical ‘reheating’ period that kickstarted the Big Bang

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

As the Big Bang theory goes, somewhere around 13.8 billion years ago the universe exploded into being, as an infinitely small, compact fireball of matter that cooled as it expanded, triggering reactions that cooked up the first stars and galaxies, and all the forms of matter that we see (and are) today.

Just before the Big Bang launched the universe onto its ever-expanding course, physicists believe, there was another, more explosive phase of the early universe at play: cosmic inflation, which lasted less than a trillionth of a second. During this period, matter—a cold, homogeneous goop—inflated exponentially quickly before processes of the Big Bang took over to more slowly expand and diversify the infant universe.

Recent observations have independently supported theories for both the Big Bang and cosmic inflation. But the two processes are so radically different from each other that scientists have struggled to conceive of how one followed the other.

Oct 25, 2019

More than 100 homeless people now have jobs through Austin nonprofit

Posted by in category: employment

The employees get paid $15 an hour cleaning the green space in Austin.


AUSTIN, Texas — The homeless often face barriers when trying to find employment. This week, after reaching the one-year anniversary of their new program, a nonprofit said they are making a difference for those trying to get on their feet and find a job.

In October 2018, The Other Ones Foundation (Too Found) created its Workforce First program to provide the homeless with jobs cleaning the green space in Austin and reduce panhandling.

Continue reading “More than 100 homeless people now have jobs through Austin nonprofit” »

Oct 25, 2019

Researchers create blueprint for ‘quantum battery’ that doesn’t lose charge

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, quantum physics

Scientists from the universities of Alberta and Toronto developed a blueprint for a new quantum battery that doesn’t leak charge.

“A quantum is a tiny, nano-size battery meant to be used for applications on the nano scale,” explained U of A chemist Gabriel Hanna, who was principal investigator on the study.

He said the research provides a theoretical demonstration that creating a loss-free is possible—offering an advantage over previously proposed quantum batteries.

Oct 25, 2019

Intensive DNA search yields 10 genes tied directly to schizophrenia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

bigsmile


Rare genetic variants could point to new treatments for severe psychiatric disorder.